ERICA RIVERA
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Updated
8/5/2013

Ryan Wood hopes to continue his popular web series via Kickstarter donations.

Local screenwriter and filmmaker Ryan Wood launched a Kickstarter campaign Thursday to fund the continuation of his “Fear of Girls” series.

Written and directed by 38-year-old Wood, “Fear of Girls” follows a pair of socially awkward geeks who consider themselves to be elite Dungeons & Dragons players. The duo dresses up in medieval wizard and barbarian garb, re-enact fantasy battles in their living room and lust over the pizza girl, among other antics.

The original “Fear of Girls” episode was released online in 2005 and quickly went viral, garnering more than a million views in its first week. Hollywood soon came knocking, and Disney Studios ultimately optioned and paid for production of the second episode. Disney’s Comedy Incubator initiative, and the website on which “Fear of Girls” was meant to debut, failed to come to fruition.

When Disney’s exclusivity on the series expired, Wood developed and filmed episode three and posted the trilogy on the "Fear of Girls" YouTube channel. Now Wood is determined to make a fourth installment starring Scott Jorgenson and Tom Lommel.

In addition to the traditional T-shirts and poster swag, incentives for Kickstarter contributors include copies of the script, storyboards, digital downloads of the series, DVDs with commentary, and an original Dungeons & Dragons game based on the first “Fear of Girls” episode. Big spenders will get to play an onscreen role that Wood says “absolutely breaks the fourth wall.”

Wood also pledges that if the campaign raises $10,000, he will pay for travel expenses for a young fan named Thomas to come to Minnesota with his father. Thomas, who is guaranteed a part in episode four regardless of the Kickstarter campaign outcome, is recovering from leukemia.